Jan., 1907 



MAGPIES ON THE LA PLATA 



YOUNG MAGPIE, JUST OUT OF NEST 

 ABOUT FIVE WEEKS OLD 



As in the case of other members of the crow and jay family, there is a differ- 

 ence of opinion as to the value of magpies to man. No doubt they eat many in- 

 sects, carrion, and vei\v likely a few mice; but they eat eggs and young of other 

 smaller birds, steal more or less grain, and I have heard them accused of picking 

 at sores on the backs of horses, burros and cattle, and doing considerable harm in 

 that manner. 



Colorado Springs, Colorado. 



MAGPIES ON THE EA PEATA 



BY M. FRENCH OILMAN 



THE Ea Plata River is a small stream in southwestern Colorado, much like 

 our southern California rivers. It flows into the Fan Juan, a tributary of the 

 mighty Colorado. The growth in the river bottom and on the adjacent 

 banks seems to form a magpie's paradise, judging from the numbers of these birds 

 and their old nests. Beginning where the stream issues from the Ea Plata Moun- 

 tains, near the mining town of Hesperus, on down the river for about ten miles, 

 the birds fairly swarm. They are found in smaller numbers along the stream to 

 its junction with the San Juan and then down that river as far as I have been: 

 Shiprock, New Mexico. 



The center of the population — Pica pica hiidsonica population — seems to be 

 near the Fort Eewis Indian School, in Ea Plata County. Here the river bottom 

 widens and is covered with a dense growth of narrow-leaf cottonwood {Popiilus 

 angustifolia), black birch {BeUda occidentalis), paper-leaf alder {Alniis temiifolia), 

 two kinds of willow, a few aspens {Populus ire»iuloides), some scattering pines 

 {Pinusflexilis), and the usual undergrowth of such altitudes, 7,500 to 8,120 feet. 

 On one side of the river is a mesa covered with scrub oak {Quercus undidaia 



